


Returning and Coming Back

by 13thSyndicate



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Chapter 100+ Spoilers, Everything becomes okay, Gen, HakYona children, Kid Fic, Post canon, Zeno finds some kind of peace, everything is good and right with the world, there are kids, uncle!dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7919701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13thSyndicate/pseuds/13thSyndicate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one of Yona's twins is born with red hair, she isn't entirely sure what it means. The dragons adore both of them anyway.</p><p>Written for the AkaYona chat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Returning and Coming Back

_“As an act of faith and goodwill towards the girl whose soul once belonged to our brother – we make a pact now with the descendants of the warriors who swore to protect him. We take back some of the blood that was given; the dragons-on-earth will walk closer to earth, now, and farther from heaven. However, as the power passes from them to their descendants, and leaves them for its new hosts, it will no longer leave them broken, or blind, or dying. Instead the passing will be joyous._  
  
_And our littlest brother, who has hurt so much… though we can’t undo what has been done to him, we will open the way to heaven for him. So that at any time, if he feels unsure, or alone… or simply tired, from his wandering… he may return to us, and his mortal brothers, at any time, for all eternity.”_

Ik-soo’s pale, storkish form stood still, for a moment, as a silence fell over them, the fourfold voice dissipating in the early morning mist.

Then it collapsed on the palace floor before Yona’s throne, leaving Yoon to frown and tut about idiot priests.

\-------

When one of Yona’s twins was born with crimson hair, the color of the sky at dawn, she wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. As far as Zeno had told her, all of Hiryuu’s children had been normal, but there he was, a tiny little thing with a full mop of red hair straight from the womb. The other child, a little girl, was as black-haired as her father, and after delivering the children, Yoon simply shrugged expansively and made some sarcastic remark about thunder beasts and gods. Yona simply smiled softly down at the children that had been placed in her arms and held them tightly.

“What are we going to call them?” Hak asked, having been let in to see his wife and children once the birthing process was finished. His voice was just as soft and full of wonder as he reached out a hand to a tiny shape.  
  
Yona hummed softly in thought as she glanced between the two of them.

“Iseul,” she said, stroking the girl’s hair, “and Min-dae,” she whispered to the boy. Hak gave a long, hesitant, slow smile.

“Good names,” he said.  
  
\------

“Iseul! Iseul, wait up! Wait up, it’s _not fair!_ ”

“What’s not fair? It’s not my fault if you’re too late, dummy!”

“Iseul….!”

The little girl with her father’s hair and mother’s eyes twirled around, always just one step ahead of her slightly-older, redheaded brother as the two of them ran across the courtyard.

“Hey, now, what are you two doing?” called a voice, soft, but scolding. The two children skidded to a stop, turned around, began clamoring at once.

“Uncle Kija-!”  
“Uncle Kija, Iseul’s leaving me behind again!”  
“Min-dae’s too slow!”  
“I am not too slow!”  
“If we’re going to be late for lessons, it’s not _my_ fault!”  
“If we’re late, Papa won’t teach us _anything!_ It’s not _fair!_ ”  
“Uncle Jae-ha says _nothing_ is fair!”  
“Mama says Uncle Jae-ha’s a cy… shin… _shinnic!_ ”  
“You don’t even know what that means!”  
“Neither do you!”

“Children, please!” laughed the man in question, shaking a head full of white hair as blue eyes stared down at the squabbling siblings. He crouched in front of them, as he’d seen mothers do in his village a long time ago, and folded both hands across his knees. “One at a time,” he said. “You’re late for a lesson?”

“Mmhmm!” exclaimed Min-dae. “Papa’s going to teach us how to fight! He promised!”

“But only if we’re on _time_ ,” added Iseul. “Min-dae was going to be late, and _I_ was going to be first! Papa’s going to teach me how to use a _spear,”_ she added proudly. “And maybe even a quan-dao, like him!”

“I thought he was going to teach us to use a bow,” Min-dae said, glancing over at his twin. “Like mama.”

“Don’t be silly, if it were going to be bows, Mama would teach us!”

“Children,” Kija started, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention. He shook his head, sighing. _“Children,”_ he said more firmly. “I’m sure you have plenty of time to get to your lessons. Especially if I carry you.”

“Carry us?!” The pair looked at each other, wide grins lighting up their faces. “Oh, would you, Uncle Kija?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. Helping Min-dae onto his back and hoisting Iseul with his claw – with a bit more effort, now, than it might once have taken, but still easily – he took off at a run, squealing children clinging to him. He felt his smile widen.

Taking care of children. The prospect was much happier, now that it wasn’t going to spell the end of his life. And being an uncle to the prince and princess of Kouka?  
  
Well. That was a thing of pure joy.

For a moment, something glowed on the edge of his awareness, a bright spark he hadn’t felt in years. For a moment, his heart almost stopped – but it was gone, as surely as if he’d simply imagined it.

Green and blue were a constant ebb and flow. But something soft, and tender, wormed its way into Kija’s heart. Had that been, just for a moment, a touch of yellow at the back of his mind?

\-----

When he wasn’t out visiting all corners of Kouka, the palace gardens were Shin-ah’s favorite spot.

Even now, so many years later, it felt strange to sit with a naked face, sun beating down on his eyelids. He’d long since had to master the art of closing not just eyes but sight. In the dark of the caverns, there wasn’t much to disturb his sleep, but here, there was light almost all the time, motion and sound almost constantly changing. The squealing and laughter of delighted children pierced his ears, and for a moment, he didn’t have to open his eyes to see them dancing around with toy wooden swords, playing at pirates or kings, and Shin-ah’s golden eyes opened to the brilliant light of the unmasked sun.

“Uncle Shin-ah!” one of them called, he wasn’t sure which, before he was tackled by a bundle of cloth and limbs and unruly red hair, and he felt the blood humming in his veins as he let himself be toppled over. “Uncle Shin-ah, you’re back, you’re back!”

“You’re back, you’re back!” chorused the voices and he smiled, letting Iseul and Min-dae both have their fun sitting on top of him for a moment before he gently moved them aside and sat up.

“I’m back,” was all he said. He was still a man of few words, of soft voice. He moved to retrieve the stick of charcoal and scroll of paper from the garden bench where he’d been sitting. He loved the gardens because they were full of beauty, things his eyes could see. Now that things were at peace, and he could sit and simply _look_ at everything, the itch to somehow hold those sights forever had first driven him to pick up charcoal, brush and ink, paint, and learn how to put those things on paper.

“Uncle Shin-ah, do you have anything for us?”

“What did you see, where did you _go?!_ ”

“Ah…” He thought for a moment, of how to describe it to them. He retrieved a scroll from his bags, set neatly by the bench, and opened it. “Here,” he said. “This is a river. We… we went there once, a long time ago.”

“You mean, you and Mama and the other dragons and Papa and Healer Yoon?”

“That’s right,” he said. He thought for a moment, but he’d never been good at putting words into stories. Instead, he settled for sights – sights and sounds, the things he’d seen. He couldn’t see as far into the distance now, but he could still see far enough, could _remember._ He painted a picture in words like he might with his brush, and the children sat at rapt attention. They’d learned long ago to listen to Shin-ah – he always knew when they were making mischief. But he also knew the most beautiful, the most wonderful, places, deep inside the palace or even outside it, when their parents allowed the dragons to take them outside the walls.

For just a moment, a single solitary moment, Shin-ah flashed to a moment in his childhood.

 _That was a yellow dragon,_ he thought to himself, and wondered why of all things he was remembering that. There hadn’t been a yellow dragon by the stream, not this time – Zeno had been gone for so long, and of course there was no one to inherit Ouryuu’s power.

“Uncle Shin-ah? Is something wrong?”

“You stopped in the middle of your story…”

He shook his head. No. Nothing was wrong. In fact…

Something might even be a little bit right.

\------

“You know, I’m getting too old for this.”

A pair of small voices giggled at the remark as the wind pressed them close to the back of the man carrying them through the air. They reached the tip of the jump, the apex, and then let out delighted squeals as gravity took over and pulled them back down to earth.

“Uncle Jae-ha, you always get mad when Papa calls you old!”

The green-haired man chuckled, and his legs bent with the force of impact, sending him into a kneeling position and allowing two precious children – precious, he thought to himself, and wasn’t that such an interesting thing – to climb off of his back. “That,” he said, standing, “is because  there is a difference between being old, and being too old. Also because your father is usually being vulgar and unpleasant when he says it.” The words were spoken with a twinkle of a violet eye and the children giggled again.

“Papa says _you’re_ vulgar and unpleasant,” Iseul said conspiratorially. “But you’re my favorite uncle, Jae-ha.”

“And I should be,” he said, patting the little girl on the head with his best grin. “You couldn’t have picked a better favorite. I’m handsome, cultured… and of course, I have the strongest power among the dragons.”

“Yeah! I’d give anything to be able to fly!” Min-dae agreed. “But… all I have is this hair…” He tugged at it with a frown that reminded Jae-ha so much of the boy’s mother that it startled a laugh out of him. “H-hey!” Min-dae protested, “don’t laugh, it’s true! It gets long and it’s all wavy and messy… it doesn’t look like a boy’s hair should!”

“I think it looks very pretty,” Iseul said. “Unlike the rest of you! Nyeh!”

“Hey!”

“Now, children, play nice,” Jae-ha said, patting them both heavily on the heads. “Min-dae, if you’d like some help, I might be able to get you something for your hair,” he offered. “And Iseul, you should be nice to your brother. It isn’t beautiful to be so casual with your insults.”

“Hrmmm….” She frowned.

“You must learn to be cutting and sharp like a blade,” Jae-ha told her. “Someday, you’ll be just as good at it as your father, if you practice.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up. “Alright! I’ll practice being mean every day until I can do it nicely!

Jae-ha laughed, a little sheepishly, hoping it didn’t get back to Hak who’d given the king’s daughter that little piece of ‘advice’. “Well. Maybe not _every_ day…” he said, glancing off to the side.

“Yeah! And do it to someone who isn’t me, it’s not fair,” exclaimed Min-dae, crossing his arms. “B-but… uh… thanks about my, uh, my hair, uncle Jae-ha… yours always looks really good…”

“Why, thank you,” he said, tossing his ponytail. “Never let anyone tell you a man shouldn’t take care of his hair. In fact, I’ll help both of you, if…”

Jae-ha trailed off.

For just a moment. Had that been…?

A single ray of sunshine illuminated his soul, then blotted out again like the sun. No, it couldn’t be.

“…if you both behave,” he finished, as though nothing was wrong. He was still, as always, the actor.

“Alright! We promise!” the children chorused. “Take us for another flight, Uncle Jae-ha….?”

“….of course, dear children,” he said, absently, though his eyes and mind were elsewhere.

\------

“Hey! Min-dae, wait up!”

The two children ran through the palace corridors, laughing, playing, the pair of happy siblings they were. They quarreled, some, and bickered, some, but they were always there for each other. Yona often commented on how inseparable they were, like two peas in a pod, and Hak could sometimes even be heard agreeing with her – though he just as often admitted it got them in trouble sometimes.

“Come on, Iseul! I found a really cool place, yesterday!”

The two padded through the halls, Min-dae leading, a patch of brilliant, fiery hair that Iseul could follow almost with her eyes closed, until they reached a dark and empty wing. Very little of Hiryuu Castle was empty, so that was surprising – even more surprising was the dust that lay across everything.

“See this?” he asked, skidding to a stop in front of a door.

“It’s… a door,” Iseul said. “What’s so special about a door?”

“Well,” Min-dae said with a shrug, “the fact that it was locked until two weeks ago. Nobody’s allowed in or out of here. Well, except us. Unless Mama catches us.”

“And…?”

“Well, something was here. But it’s gone, now. It looks like it’s just an empty storage room, but… you can see all kinds of things here. And there’s a bed on one side, all made up as if it’s waiting for someone…”

“But nobody lives here.”

“Exactly! It’s so weird… I wonder who it’s for?”

“Ah… pardon me.” The soft voice was gentle, kind, a little sheepish, and the pair turned around with a squeak. Standing in front of them was a young man, tall, with long, fluffy blonde hair, wearing traveler’s robes, a headband, and an amulet dangling in front of one ear. “I… I’m just a traveler, staying in the palace, and… I must have lost my way. Could you two…?”

Something about him almost seemed familiar, though Min-dae knew he’d never seen the man before. He stepped forward with a frown.

“Sure, but… I didn’t know there was anyone visiting, currently,” he said, a look of confusion written on his face. “I’ve seen everyone in the palace… and I’ve never met you before.”

“Aheh…” chuckled the stranger, reaching up to comb invisible tangles from his hair. “Well… I was going to… introduce myself…”

He seemed fidgety. Nervous. Min-dae was about to say something, when the sound of a crash echoed beyond the room. The newcomer turned to the side, a half-startled, half-ecstatic expression slowly crossing his face, and Min-dae’s eyes widened to see Yona standing there behind this odd blonde stranger, a large number of scrolls unfurling themselves on the ground where she’d dropped them.

 _“Zeno_ ,” she whispered, and the blonde man broke into a smile. “Zeno,” she said again, and then she was half-tackling him as the children looked on in wonder and surprise. “Zeno Zeno Zeno you came _back._ ”

“Of course Zeno did, Miss,” he said, and Iseul exchanged glances with her brother that someone could get away with speaking that way to their mother. “He couldn’t leave you and his brothers alone forever, could he?”

Mama was crying now and Zeno laughed softly, pulling her tighter. “Shhh, shhh, it’s alright, Miss. Zeno’s here… he isn’t going anywhere again, not for a long time. Now that he got to say his goodbyes… be with his brothers…”

“Oh, Zeno,” Yona whispered, and pulled herself away, patting him on the head, ruffling his mane of hair. “You’ve gotten so _tall…!”_

Min-dae suddenly understood, with a moment of incredible clarity, who this person had to be. There were four dragons, after all – but he and Iseul only had three uncles.

Zeno laughed, a carefree laugh, throwing his head back and guffawing.

“Yes, yes, Zeno did~! In the land of the gods, Zeno became an adult at last… but there won’t be any more growing for Zeno, I’m afraid,” he said.

“I… I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be, Miss,” he said. “Now, Zeno really does have all the time in the world.”

And suddenly, brilliant blue eyes were turning on the two of them, and Min-dae stepped in front of his sister, because he trusted Mother’s dragons not to hurt them but there were worse things than hurt you could do to a person, weren’t there? He wasn’t entirely sure how he knew that, but the yellow dragon – Zeno – kneeled down in front of him with a smile.

“And who is this?” he asked.

“My children,” Yona said softly. “Iseul and Min-dae.”

“Zeno is pleased to meet them,” he said, and held out a hand.

Min-dae took it, solemnly, and regarded this newcomer with an analyzing expression.

“Uncle Zeno,” he said calmly. “I’m pleased to meet you too.”

“…Uncle?” Zeno asked with surprise.

“All the dragons are my uncles,” Min-dae said with a firm nod. “That makes you one, too."

There was a moment, as they stared at each other, and then Zeno began to laugh, pulling the two children into a hug. “Zeno’s been adopted, I see, I see,” he exclaimed with a happy smile, and Yona’s face, also relaxed into a smile.

Suddenly the other three were there, too, and Hak, also, demanding to know what had drawn Kija away from training, and they all stopped and stared for a moment, and then suddenly everyone was hugging, with Min-dae and Iseul in the middle, and in a moment of perfect clarity, he knew.

Everything. Everything was going to be all right.

**Author's Note:**

> A few shoutouts. First goes to EHyde, who's responsible for the idea that Shin-ah is an artist, and the second to the rest of the AkaYona chat for getting me to write this. I have so many headcanons about these kids now D: Also I feel like this is a pretty close to ideal situation; I feel like what Ouryuu did to Zeno made him a bit too not-mortal for them to just take it back or take a little of it away, but now he can return to heaven whenever he gets tired of Earth and watns to spend time with his original brothers. Forever, if he wants to, but... this is Zeno. Meddling little troll :3
> 
> Iseul is a real Korean name meaning 'dew', but I made up Min-dae.
> 
> I honestly don't know if everyone's in-character or not. I was kinda in a rush writing this. But I love it to death anyway so please be kind.


End file.
